Bayern's fine Champions League run continued as FCB built on a stunning 5-0 success away to Sporting Lisbon with a majestic 7-1 win in the first knockout round return, prompting deep satisfaction in the Munich camp afterwards. However, the stars know they face a run of crunch games in the Bundesliga and in Europe from now on. “We’re delighted, but everyone already has one eye on Bochum,” said coach Klinsmann.
Reaction to Bayern v Sporting Clube:
Jürgen Klinsmann: “We wanted to avoid Sporting taking the lead. The team took the game extremely seriously, and Sporting sensed that fact. They realised they really weren’t in with any kind of chance. Then we started scoring, we started to play flowing football, and we began enjoying ourselves. Every player went looking for the ball. Our man on the ball always had at least two options. The players were just overjoyed to be out there. They all look forward to the Champions League, because we had to make do with the UEFA Cup last season. These evenings have become very special. We’re delighted, but everyone already has one eye on Bochum [in the Bundesliga next Saturday].“
Mark van Bommel: “Sporting didn’t put up much resistance today. I had the feeling they weren’t really up for it. It’ll always be a lot easier if you keep it simple, let the ball do the work and have two or three chances at the start. If you then get a couple of goals, you end up playing like we did today. We really enjoyed ourselves. It’s a historic win for Bayern, although the result doesn’t properly reflect the relative standings of the clubs. We’ll need a bit of luck with the draw for the next round, we want to play the first leg away from home, and then we could go a long way.“
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